Last week marked the fifth anniversary of Colorado's decision to sanction the world's first anything-goes commercial pot trade.

Five years later, we remain an embarrassing cautionary tale.

Visitors to Colorado remark about a new agricultural smell, the wafting odor of pot as they drive near warehouse grow operations along Denver freeways. Residential neighborhoods throughout Colorado Springs reek of marijuana, as producers fill rental homes with plants.

Five years of retail pot coincide with five years of a homelessness growth rate that ranks among the highest rates in the country. Directors of homeless shelters, and people who live on the streets, tell us homeless substance abusers migrate here for easy access to pot.

Five years of Big Marijuana ushered in a doubling in the number of drivers involved in fatal crashes who tested positive for marijuana, based on research by the pro-legalization Denver Post.

Five years of commercial pot have been five years of more marijuana in schools than teachers and administrators ever feared.

"An investigation by Education News Colorado, Solutions and the I-News Network shows drug violations reported by Colorado's K-12 schools have increased 45 percent in the past four years, even as the combined number of all other violations has fallen," explains an expose on escalating pot use in schools by Rocky Mountain PBS in late 2016.

The investigation found an increase in high school drug violations of 71 percent since legalization. School suspensions for drugs increased 45 percent.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health found Colorado ranks first in the country for marijuana use among teens, scoring well above the national average.

The only good news to celebrate on this anniversary is the dawn of another organization to push back against Big Marijuana's threat to kids, teens and young adults.

The Marijuana Accountability Coalition formed Nov. 6 in Denver and will establish satellites throughout the state. It resulted from discussions among recovery professionals, parents, physicians and others concerned with the long-term effects of a commercial industry profiteering off of substance abuse.

"It's one thing to decriminalize marijuana, it's an entirely different thing to legalize an industry that has commercialized a drug that is devastating our kids and devastating whole communities," said coalition founder Justin Luke Riley. "Coloradans need to know, other states need to know, that Colorado is suffering from massive normalization and commercialization of this drug which has resulted in Colorado being the number one state for youth drug use in the country. Kids are being expelled at higher rates, and more road deaths tied to pot have resulted since legalization."

Commercial pot's five-year anniversary is an odious occasion for those who want safer streets, healthier kids and less suffering associated with substance abuse. Experts say the worst effects of widespread pot use will culminate over decades. If so, we can only imagine the somber nature of Big Marijuana's 25th birthday.

I've live in Colorado and been here in both pre and post legalization times. Not a big consumer of THC or have kids so it really doesn't affect me either way but I do have a fundamental problem (slippery slope effect if you will) of the government being able to outlaw an unrefined plant that grows in nature. Speaking of slippery slopes that's all I have to say about that. Colorado legalizing marijuana was kind of like the the government legalizing fish in the ocean. It was already here and in MASS quantities. Local law enforcement turned a blind eye to its usage in much of the western part of the state as well. You could get in more trouble for smoking a cigarette in a bar than smoking a joint on the corner in many areas in pre-legalization. Not exaggerating. The only difference I noticed is the breadth and depth of the product. Instead of a bag of weed or edibles you can now get it sprays, drops, lollipops, soda pop, hard candies, vaporizers just to name a few options for consumption. I honestly fail to see how the usage of THC has gone up unless the options of consumption are the culprit because if you wanted the product it was VERY readily available before it was legal.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Otter

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"In Colorado last year, nearly 36 percent of all drivers involved in fatal crashes who tested positive for marijuana use also had consumed alcohol, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation."

"In Colorado last year, nearly 36 percent of all drivers involved in fatal crashes who tested positive for marijuana use also had consumed alcohol, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation."

What a nice little caveat huh?

The OP conveniently left that out...

and this supports what?

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What we do have here is a stat proving these guys were driving drunk. What you DON'T have is a stat that proves they were high. Just that they were high at some point, not necessarily the day, or time they were driving.

So you can take 36% of your "had THC" stat, and throw that shit out the window. If they were driving drunk, you can't sit there and say, "see! It's because of weed!"

People shouldn't drive: after smoking pot, after drinking alcohol, while texting or even talking on a cell phone, while they have kids screaming in the back seat, after a bad night's sleep, with a spouse they are having an argument with, while eating food, while...

Driverless cars can't come too soon.

It has been hard to determine how much pot affects people driving. So X percent of fatal accidents are from people who have THC in them. X percent is also from people who have caffeine or nicotine. Doesn't tell you much.

This study, which I've posted before, is getting a bit old, but I've not read about any studies like it since.

A single glass of wine will impair your driving more than smoking a joint. And under certain test conditions, the complex way alcohol and cannabis combine to affect driving behaviour suggests that someone who has taken both may drive less recklessly than a person who is simply drunk.

The problem is that someone can test positive for THC 21 days after they ingested it, so unless the person driving was actually using that day and is impaired when arrested, the rest becomes really blurry.

... because if you wanted the product it was VERY readily available before it was legal.

That's the reason I originally supported legalization. You just can't jail everyone using it. The other products such as edibles and sprays are something I have no problems with keeping legal. The smoke getting out and affecting others I do. Driving shouldn't be allowed but I don't know what cut off period is suitable.

People shouldn't drive: after smoking pot, after drinking alcohol, while texting or even talking on a cell phone, while they have kids screaming in the back seat, after a bad night's sleep, with a spouse they are having an argument with, while eating food, while...

Driverless cars can't come too soon.

It has been hard to determine how much pot affects people driving. So X percent of fatal accidents are from people who have THC in them. X percent is also from people who have caffeine or nicotine. Doesn't tell you much.

This study, which I've posted before, is getting a bit old, but I've not read about any studies like it since.

A single glass of wine will impair your driving more than smoking a joint. And under certain test conditions, the complex way alcohol and cannabis combine to affect driving behaviour suggests that someone who has taken both may drive less recklessly than a person who is simply drunk.

I didn't read the whole linked article. But does it get into tolerance levels? I promise you that you give me 1 beer(I don't think I could hold down a glass of wine, who drinks that crap ) vs. 1 joint, it's no comparison.

1 beer and nobody around would even know I had drank one. One joint and I couldn't stay awake long enough to shove 3 pizza's into my face. I haven't smoked in years but even back in the day I was a lightweight when it came to weed. I work with a guy that smokes and he has told me that if I couldn't hold my weed in the 80's and 90's, I better stay away from today's stuff. He said they have genetically enhanced the stuff these days.

But back to my point, tolerance plays into this stuff. I should of read the whole article but it's one of them things that's just too ridiculous of a concept to even bother putting too much time into.

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